Underwater mortgage

About 10 percent of homeowners now owe more than their house is worth, boosting mobility for jobs and reviving retirement areas.

Richmond, California is attempting to keep homeowners in their homes by using eminent domain to buy underwater mortgages, and the banks don't like it.

Not everyone wants to ditch their underwater mortgage once it resurfaces.

More homeowners are going from underwater to above water on their mortgages, and that could mean some really good news for the economy.

This week, Marketplace Money and The New York Times team up to tell the story of home ownership in America three years after the housing bubble. View our interactive map and listen to our special podcast.

A few years ago, 60 percent of Phoenix-area mortgages were underwater. Reporter Peter O'Dowd was one of those homeowners.

The national foreclosure rate increased by more than 3 percent in October compared to the previous month. Some groups across the country are trying to change that by buying underwater mortgages and keeping families in their homes.

Bank of America starts a foreclosure-prevention program that lets borrowers give up ownership of their home but stay on rent-paying tenants.

Yesterday's $25 billion agreement between five big U.S. banks and state attorneys general could help some three million homeowners who owe more than their homes are currently worth.